2005 Pommard Les Rugiens

Possessed of a meatier, marrowy character than its predecessors in this line-up, a 2005 Pommard Rugiens also offers attractive aromatic notes of cooked cherry and wood smoke. A concentrated, stock-reduction meatiness dominates the palate, along with obvious, firm but fine-grained tannins, and the wine finishes with admirable clarity and meaty depth. Managing director Stephane Follin and cellar master Philippe Prost preside over a remarkable new, gravity-fed winemaking facility capable of handling the fruits of Bouchard’s 130 hectares of vines – Burgundy’s largest estate (with 84 hectares in premier and grand crus alone) – not to mention the enormous range of wine from purchased fruit or wines. Fully 40% of the reds are vinified in open-top fermenters with manual punch-downs (the balance in a battery of roto-fermentors) and the system of traffic control alone that must be in place during crush is hard to imagine. The underground acreage devoted to barriques similarly defies imagination – until one sees it. Prost was very cautious with pigeage this year, but incorporated a significant percentage of whole clusters with stems in many of his better lots. A reputation for improved quality is being built here to which the results of 2005 will certainly contribute. I suspect that a number of the wines I tasted had not recovered from their recent bottling, hence the number of “+?”s one sees displayed following my scores. (Wines from the Domaine are designated D on the list above.) Also recommended: 2005 Savigny-les-Beaune Les Lavieres D ($30.00; 86), 2005 Monthelie Les Duresses D ($35.00; 84), 2005 Monthelie Clos des Champs Fulliot D ($35.00; 85), 2005 Beaune 1er Cru “Beaune du Chateau” D ($45.00; 86+?), 2005 Beaune Marconnets ($35.00; 86+?), 2005 Volnay Taillepieds D ($55.00; 85+?), 2005 Pommard 1er Cru ($45.00; 84+?), 2005 Nuits-St.-Georges ($55.00; 85), 2005 Gevrey-Chambertin ($35.00; 86), 2005 Vosne-Romanee ($35.00; 85), 2005 Nuits-St.-Georges Les Porrets St.-Georges ($55.00; 86+?), 2005 Nuits-St.-Georges Les Damodes ($55.00; 86+?). Importer: Henriot, Inc, New York, NY

Deep ruby-red. Deep, classy aromas of plum, cherry and smoke. Suave and fine-grained, with palate-coating, youthfully medicinal flavors of black cherry, licorice and minerals. Conveys a dusty impression of extract. The tannins are quite suave and fine and the wine's minerality really saturates the palate.